Mixed Martial Arts (herein referred to as “MMA”) fantasy sports games are derivative games in which scoring and outcomes are determined by the statistical results of real world MMA events (herein referred to as “events,” “fight cards,” or “cards”). MMA is a real world combat sport organized by various promotional organizations including UFC®, WEC®, Strikeforce™, Dream, Bellator, and others. MMA involves two combatants (herein referred to as “fighters”) who compete in three or five round matches (herein referred to as “fights” or “matches”), according to standardized rules dictated by the athletic commission of the state or country in which the fight is being held.
Fantasy MMA comprises unique derivative games in which the scoring elements are based on the statistical results of real-world MMA events. In MMA fantasy games currently available in the marketplace, game users (herein referred to as “users,” “managers,” or “participants”) predict the outcomes of all fights during applicable fight cards. Rather than selecting fighters to form fantasy teams (herein referred to as “teams” or “rosters”) to compete within a league, existing formats require users to predict outcomes for all the fights on applicable cards. Thus more than one user can select the same fighter(s) from a fight card, since every user makes a pick for every fight on the card. New selections are made with every card and users do not hold fighters over time on teams. Existing fantasy MMA game formats are essentially card-picking games, without fighter selection exclusivity. This makes existing fantasy MMA games fundamentally different from other fantasy sports such as football, baseball, basketball, etc. Please see the following web pages for examples of existing fantasy MMA games:
http://fantasy.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=fantasy.rules
http://www.mmaplayground.com/rules.aspx
http://mmajunkie.com/Fantasy/Rules.aspx
There is a fight frequency problem inherent to MMA which has until now prevented fantasy MMA from evolving from card-picking games (such as the three noted above) into games involving drafting fighter teams with fighter exclusivity within each league. This fight frequency problem creates a significant devaluation of all fighters immediately after they conclude a fight and thus is a major disincentive to hold fighters over the course of a season.
Elite MMA fighters typically fight between two to four times annually. As such, there exists a major imbalance between the frequency that an individual fighter fights and the frequency of MMA fight cards, which occur much more often—typically two to four per month.
Many fight cards will take place in between an elite fighter's fights. Thus, dropping elite fighters after they fight for less elite fighters who are fighting on upcoming fight cards would allow for the accumulation of more fight and scoring opportunities over the course of a game. Additionally, some fighters generally fight more often than others, creating a further imbalance of fight opportunities.
This is not an issue in other fantasy sports such as football or baseball since they have defined seasons and significantly higher game (corollary to fight) opportunities for their players over the course of each season. Due to the lack of existing solutions to the fight frequency problem, team rostering and fighter selection exclusivity within leagues have been missing from prior-art fantasy MMA games. Without targeted rules designed to counter the MMA fight frequency problem, elite fighters have little additional value over other less elite fighters, making fighter drafting, rostering and exclusivity pointless, as there is there is too much natural disincentive to hold fighters over time due to limited fight frequency. The embodiments described herein include rules designed to offset the MMA fight frequency problem.